


Motherless Children

by Walkinthegarden



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, Child Death, Childhood, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Gen, Guilt, House Baratheon, House Stark, Past Abuse, Physical Abuse, Step-parents, War Of The Five Kings, bastard, king in the north
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:31:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1942983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walkinthegarden/pseuds/Walkinthegarden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a bastard tells Catelyn horrifying tales, it makes Catelyn angry for what she did to her own husband's bastard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Motherless Children

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah this is kinda like when Catelyn saw Mya Stone, but this was nagging me in my head till I wrote it.

Catelyn Stark doesn’t pay any attention to the knights fighting before her as she waits to speak with “King” Renly. Instead, she uses her time to take in her surroundings, namely, the Royal Family. Renly is happily seated on a chair made of wood, cheering half heartedly for both the knights that fight. To his left is a beautiful young woman who Catelyn knows is Margaery Tyrell (now Baratheon) due to the green gown and golden roses she wears. Unlike her husband, Margaery is on her feet, avidly cheering for her brother, The Knight of Flowers. To his right is someone that catches Catelyn Stark by surprise. The girl is as old as Renly, Catelyn thinks, though she can’t remember, and is quite beautiful. Her hair is hidden under a cloth, leaving her only feature the blue of her eyes. She is sitting quietly, her back perfectly straight and her head slightly bent. She is dressed in a gown of Baratheon black, edged in gold with golden laces. Catelyn knows who she is on sight.

 

When the fight is done and over, Catelyn motions for her companion to go and announce her. He does, standing in the clearing.

 

“Your Grace, I have the honor to bring you Lady Catelyn Stark, sent as an envoy by her son Robb, Lord of Winterfell…”

 

“Lord of Winterfell,” she cuts off, “and King in the North.”

 

“Lady Catelyn,” Renly greets warmly, though there is a mockery to his tone that Catelyn does not like, “pleased to see you. May I present my wife, Margaery of House Tyrell.”

 

Catelyn bows her head in greeting to the _Queen_.

 

“You are very welcome here Lady Stark,” the girl only a few years Sansa’s senior says pleasantly, “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

 

“You are most kind,” Catelyn replies, opening her mouth to continue when Renly speaks again.

 

“I would also like to present my sister, Princess Elizabeth, bastard born to my father, but legitimized by my decree,” Renly introduces, making Catelyn’s mouth go dry. It was not something she had expected.

 

“I had the pleasure of meeting your daughter Sansa and your husband when my brother and I were at court not long ago. Sansa is a lovely girl Lady Stark, and your husband was a good man from what I knew of him. My deepest apologizes for your loss, it cannot be easy,” the girl says, in a voice sweeter than honey.

 

“It is not Princess, thank you for your kind words,” Catelyn replies diplomatically. The girl nods her head, giving Catelyn a warm smile as Renly starts to speak again.

 

He speaks of alliances and taking King’s Landing and natural allies, but Catelyn doesn’t really listen, too caught up in watching the Baratheon Bastard (as she had been called for most of her life). The girl continues to sit straight, even when her brother continues to talk and Margaery has long left the platform in favor of her tent. She doesn’t move a fraction of an inch until her brother finally stops speaking. While Loras runs up to say something to Renly, Elizabeth makes her way down the steps and over to Catelyn.

 

“Lady Stark, I wonder if you would mind a walk with me?” Elizabeth asks.

 

Catelyn agrees because she does not know what else to do. They make their way to the edge of the camp in silence. It is Elizabeth that finally breaks the silence.

 

“You do not approve,” the girl says so simply that it takes Catelyn a minute to understand what she means.

 

“I do not mean to give the impression—” Catelyn is cut off by Elizabeth’s musical laughter.

 

“It is alright Lady Stark, you are not the only one. I am blessed that Renly is so fond of me, or I would have been left to die I’m sure. My brother Stannis has never cared much for me, a stain on a beautiful family he once called me,” she says with a fondness that confuses Catelyn.

 

“It is rare that a bastard grows with the trueborn children,” Catelyn says, curiosity getting the best of her.

 

“Rare indeed,” Elizabeth agrees, “granted at first I lived with my mother. She died when I was a young girl though, and my father, the great Lord Baratheon took me to live with him and his family. I thought it would be like a song, that I would be a princess.”

 

“It seems you were,” Catelyn says with a smile, finding herself happy for the girl.

 

“You would be wrong. My father’s Lady wife hated me very much. She had just birthed my half sister Alia, but she believed my father loved me more. One night when I was eight, I grew sick. I was delirious with fever and father was away at King’s Landing. I screamed for my mother for four nights. On the fifth night, my brother’s mother stormed into my room and screamed that if I did not close my mouth she would pull my hair from my head and give me a real reason to scream.”

 

Catelyn looks at the girl, truly horrified that a woman would threaten to do that to a child. “Did she?”

 

“On the sixth night, I was in so much pain I began to scream again. The maester tried his hardest to quiet me but nothing worked. She came into my chamber and screamed at me with such hatred in her eyes. I remember wondering in that moment what I had ever done to make her hate me so much. She pulled at my hair by the handful, leaving me bloody on my bed when she was done; my hair has never grown quite right since.”

 

“That is horrible; no child should ever be treated so harshly,” Catelyn says sympathetically. “Did she ever love you? Sympathize with you at all?”

 

“No, she never did,” Elizabeth replies with a detachment that makes Catelyn shutter, “Alia grew sick when I turned ten, very sick. When the maester told her that Alia would not make it through the night, she came to me and screamed that I was a demon child and that it should be me that lays dying instead of her precious daughter. I told her I would do anything to take Alia’s place, to die so that my sister could live. She didn’t believe me. Alia died soon after and my father and step mother departed for the Free Cities after that. I never saw them again.”

 

“That is awful Lady Elizabeth, you should have never been treated so terribly.”

 

“It is a noblewoman’s right they tell me, to despise the bastards of her husband. I suppose I’ve never really blamed her, though Renly says I should despise her as she did me.”

 

“She should have never been so cruel.”

 

“This life we live is not a kind one, Lady Stark. If you don’t mind, I must find my good sister,” Elizabeth says as she gives a smile to Catelyn, disappearing into the camp.

 

It isn’t until the girl has left that Lady Stark remembers Jon. It isn’t until then that she realizes that Elizabeth _knows_. She knows exactly what Catelyn has done, and she told her those stories to show her what a terrible woman she is. What Lady Baratheon did to the girl makes Catelyn’s stomach turn, but did she not do the same to Jon? Did she not also wish him death? Did she not also torture the boy whenever the mood struck her? She is no better then Lady Baratheon, and it makes Catelyn sick.


End file.
